01 United Kingdom
B: Some of the lyrics (“Due east over desert sands / ... / ...tanned by wind and weather”) make this read like it should be set against some Lawrence of Arabia backdrop. Wonderful lines like “You sure could have knocked me down / With the proverbial feather” make it such a product of its time.
A: It sounds like it should be the theme tune to some ’60s Canadian comedy featuring Mounties and lots of Technicolor scenery. A bit like Greenacres, but set in British Columbia. Very cheery. Deceptively so, until you get the pay-off at the end. Love the snare.
V: Bryan Johnson has a voice that is very much as robust as the song he’s singing. Great vocal performance, although it would be even better with the backing the studio version has. But I’m guessing that wasn’t allowed back in the day.
02 Sweden
B: I love the muted confidence of “Om jag blott vågade fria / Skulle du nog ge ditt ‘ja’”.
A: That first verse is way too cheery when you look at what it’s saying. Ms Malmkvist must be a lot more optimistic of her chances* than her words make her sound. The whole thing is upbeat; I guess they had little time for introspection in their arrangements, which here is showcased by what must be about the longest instrumental break we’ve heard to date. It’s from the same composer and lyricist as 1962’s Sol Och Vår, and overall it makes an apt prelude.
V: Said instrumental break provides us with one of the best orchestral arrangements and performances we’ve ever heard in Eurovision, and since it represents about half of the song that can only be a good thing. Not that there’s anything wrong with Siw’s performance, which is charm itself.
*Mind you, 9th in 1969 is hardly a huge improvement on 10th in 1960!
03 Luxembourg
B: I quite like these lyrics, from the simple but effective contrast – yet another – between “So laang we’s du do worst” and “So laang we’s du do bast” to the gloomy but nevertheless often true “Et as so am Liewen: ... / All Stonnen déi schéin, vill ze séier verbléin”. (I’m also rather fond of “si wanken, si schwanken”, but that’s not for here.) The Luxembourgeois or whatever it’s called reads like it has touches of Dutch about it but doesn’t sound all that different to German to me.
A: The music meanwhile seems a bit like it has to be there, rather than wants to be. I love the little organ plonking away in the background so ineffectively from the second verse onwards. Camillo Felgen sounds like Walt Disney, or one of his creations. He also sounds a little more like he means what he says.
V: It doesn’t help this coming after the comparatively swinging Swedish entry, since even by the standards of the day it sounds old-fashioned. Perfectly lovely, yes, but you can understand why only 1 of the 130 points on offer went its way.
04 Denmark
B: These lyrics are so natural in form, meaning you can really imagine it all coming out that way, with its guileless tænks, and jas and dets and ogs starting almost every line. I love the way ‘grudge’ & ‘malice’ are nag & nid, like Bill & Ben’s Danish flowerpot cousins.
A: Katy has exactly the kind of voice this song needs. The strings are tremendous of course, really underscoring the nostalgia of it all, and the woodwind’s great, too. It’s just a shame that the composition overall isn’t more varied, but that ties in with the way the lyrics just sort of happen, I suppose.
V: What serendipity: Ms Bødtger appears to be wearing part of the backdrop. Glorious vocals.
05 Belgium
B: I don’t get the lyrics here, whichever language I read them in, but it’s all suitably romantic, and I’m nevertheless enchanted by the concept of “L’écho brisé d’un orphéon / ...fait danser une chanson”.
A: That ending’s a bit much when the rest of it has been relatively understated. In any case, I can see why it wasn’t a favourite with the jurors.
V: You’ve got to feel sorry for old Fernand Urbain Dominic, really: as with Camillo Felgen, I like his 1962 entry, but gave neither any points, and here he’s only 1 point and 1 place up on his ’58 entry, still without cracking double figures, with nothing at all revealed about his ’56 effort and a big fat 0 to come in ’62. And his legs look like they taper down into points. Tremendous turn from the string section here.
06 Norway
B: Great rhythm on lines like “I en liten dal, glad som få / Hørte jeg en sang som lød som så”. All of the Scandinavian entries this year have a real personal narrative feel to them.
A: This is so easy to slip into, like a perfect new pair of slippers. Which is not to say it’s lazy – on the contrary, it takes quite a few unexpected turns musically that really lift it.
V: Fab backdrop. I’m not convinced you’d actually hear a Sami girl who sounded like Nora Brockstedt in an outfit like that, or a Sami song like this, but I’m not complaining: it’s great. And voi voi probably is a Sami thing. I gave her 12 points last year. I wonder if I will again?
07 Austria
B: You fascinated me so much, as the stalker said to the corpse. I love how natural the contradictions are in “Ach... das ist gar nicht möglich / Denn das war so unsäglich / Sag’ ich dir doch noch täglich”.
A: This is a hundred times more romantic than Belgium. The arrangement suits it perfectly and our Horst (“Call me Harry!”) has a very attractive voice. You can just see them twirling about the ballrooms of Vienna to this. Lovely. German rarely sounds this delightful.
V: Nice to see the conductor throw himself into it with such gusto, perhaps injecting some energy into the song early in order to sustain it, since it does go on a bit.
08 Monaco
B: Huge amounts of lyrics, which tell such a very sad story: “Tant que je vivrai, je serai là / Ce soir-là.” Lovely.
A: Is the opening intentionally that loud and dramatic? [Listens] Well, that’s that question answered: the interesting approach taken to the composition throughout suggests it’s meant to be very much in your face. Quite effective it is, too, as it should be, with Hubert Giraud being behind France ’58, ’59, ’67 and ’79, Monaco ’61 and Luxembourg ’71. François Deguelt has the right kind of voice to tell this story: strong, but at the same time susceptible without being pathetic.
V: The arrangement’s great, and François knows how to sell it. So given it goes down so well with the surprisingly vocal audience, why do I not like it more? Was he a big name at the time? Am I missing something?
09 Switzerland
B: Can’t think of much to say about this except that I’m taken with the ambiguity of chiuso in “Un nome chiuso in fondo al cuor”.
A: This is fairly predictable, as many Swiss entries have proven to be, but with a lot to like about it. Well, quite a bit.
V: Five points was an achievement here given Ms Traversi’s result a few years later with I Miei Pensieri (another song I like but gave no points to). She looks much more at home in the verses than the chorus for some reason. Love the harp.
10 The Netherlands
B: The title sounds a bit obscene. I admire the potential tongueness-in-cheek of “Als je mij dan vraagt: "Is dat afgezaagd?" / Zeg ik ja, maar ik zaag toch nog even door”.
A: This barrels along, and the production is excellent. Indeed, I see it was composed and written by former winners (with Een Beetje and Net Als Toen). As ever I could do without the la-la-las, but I suppose they had to pad it out somehow: it has said all it has to by the 1.20 mark. This and the UK are about the only songs so far that you want to sing along to.
V: Rudi Carrell looks like Lurch from The Addams Family, albeit unusually animated and with a big quiff. His performance is an oddity: he constantly sounds like he’s half a note off whatever he’s meant to be singing, and at times seems ahead of the music. I find the whole thing frustratingly unconvincing.
11 Germany
B: “Ich vergesse dich nie” is quite a tender thing to say in any case, but surprisingly so in German.
A: Who’d have thought it: another gorgeous-sounding German ballad. This has a wonderful loungey feel about it that makes the brash brassy bits seem a little out of place, although they’re matched perfectly to what the lyrics are saying. In fact, I love the arrangement.
V: Maybe it’s just the tele picture: everyone’s legs look like they disappear into some vanishing point. From the waist up Mr Lüssenhop’s a bit of a dreamboat though, and has an enchanting voice. And the orchestra do the song all possible justice.
12 Italy
B: To go from “Tu sei la musica che ispira l’anima / Sei tu il mio angolo di paradiso, quaggiù” to “amarti è un po’ rivivere” is a bit of a comedown.
A: And the tempo drops to just about zero. Still, this works to highlight the arrangement, which is more layered than you’d think, as is the song generally. It’s just a bit slow: more lullaby than serenade. Composer Dino Verde clearly does nothing for me (after Piove (Ciao Ciao Bambina) in 1959). And the backing vocals are a bit naff.
V: The long, measured zoom-in there at the start is perfect. But the song, as lovely as it is, really does drag.
13 France
B: Fantastic lyrics.
A: This is perfectly charming, even if Jacqueline Boyer doesn’t strike me as having the best-suited voice for it. It’s often hard to approach what you know to have been the winning song with much real objectivity: you’re either instantly for it or instantly against it. Everything else is a consideration for thereafter. In this case I can certainly see its attractions, and the arrangement is delightful, particularly the way it all goes up a notch at the end with the snare and the double bass. (I see the composer and lyricist here even outdo Monaco, with nine other songs between them!)
V: Ms Boyer delivers the full package here, so you can see why the juries fell for it. And very probably her.
And so to the points...
1 point goes to Switzerland
2 points go to Monaco
3 points go to the Netherlands
4 points go to Austria
5 points go to Denmark
6 points go to Sweden
7 points go to France
8 points go to Norway
10 points go to the United Kingdom
and finally…
12 points go to...
Germany!
The wooden spoon is awarded to Luxembourg.
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